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Working on R600A unit.
Hello Everyone,
Wanted to share some insight as I had the opportunity to work on an R600A unit the other day.
Someone stabbed the evaporator plate trying to de-ice it and punctured it, letting the 1 oz of R600A out and then calling me to see if I could fix it over the $400 replacement.
I got a hold of the unit and checked the plate, maybe an 1/8″ hole and thought I can braze that, so I sanded it off and it was aluminum. So I torched it and used a special rod I got from a co-worker to fix aluminum holes and it worked out great.
I then pressure tested it at 200 PSI and found out that the evaporator plate doesen’t like 200 PSI and it got all bent out of shape XD
So I fixed the plate, let it sit and all was well, then I pulled a vac, got a can of R600A and their “Special” adapter tool and tried to weight it in with my normal refrigerant scale, didn’t work too well so I just put some in there, started it and slowly added until the SH got up to where I wanted it and it was cooling great.
Really a painless experience despite not having the right tools for it, I’m sure with the kits coming out now, it’s probably even better BUT it was surprisingly easy.
Some recommend removing the access point but I don’t really get the point of that, I’ve seen more leaks because of pinholes, cracked joints, bad braze joints or cracks due to the pipes rubbing than I have failed schraders.
so I left mine on there, leak checked it and put a cap with a seal on it, so that should do it.
I will say that one thing I could’ve done better was instead of unbrazing the suction stub, I should’ve cut it, I assumed all the R600A was out when I did it, but there was no way to tell for sure, in the future I’ll cut it and then hit it with nitro to make sure it’s all gone before I light up.
Just wanted to share the experience since it seems not everyone has had a chance to work on one yet.
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